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Chaucerian Investigation (Day 5: Lines 20-27)

Welcome back to another installment of “Me
muddling my way through Chaucerian Middle English!” Always a fun show. Anyways,
to re-cap—previously, I had finished the first movement on the first page of
the poem (I felt so proud of myself!). Now I take aim at finishing said page
and getting along a tad on the next page. Will I complete my goal, will I
master my lines? Only one way for you to find out!

So,
the text reads

Bifel that in that sesoun on a day,

In Southwerk at the tabard as I lay,

Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage

To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,

At night was come into that hostelrye

Wel nine and twenty in a compaignye

Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle

In felaweshipe, and pilgrims were they alle,

That toward Caunterbury wolden ride (3-4)

A
literal translations would read

To
leave that in that season on a day,

In
Southwark at the Tabard where I stay,

Ready
to depart on my pilgrimage

To
Canterbury with full devout courage,

At
night was come into that inn

Well
nine and twenty in a company

Of
separate folk, by chance befall

In
fellowship, and pilgrims were they all,

That
toward Canterbury would ride.

So,
David Wright translates this passage as follows

It
happened at this season, that one day

In
Southwark at the Tabard where I stayed

Ready
to set out on my pilgrimage

To
Canterbury, and pay devout homage,

There
came at nightfall to the hostelry

Some
nine and twenty in a company,

Folks
of all kinds, met in accidental

Companionship,
for they were pilgrims all;

It
was to Canterbury that they rode (3)

Well,
first off, I am happy that my own translation wasn’t actually too far off from
Wright’s own; it means that my efforts, though confused and winding, were
actually on the right track (I wasn’t off in space). Regardless, it is
interesting that Wright chose to keep the word ‘hostelry’ unchanged; my
dictionary defines it as an “inn,” so I wonder why he choose to keep it as is?
I assume because of some rhyming potential he saw (“nightfall”?). Likewise, my
dictionary lists ‘bifel’ as something along the lines of “to leave” or “to
depart,” so it is also odd that Wright decided to translate it as “It happened.”
Line 23, meanwhile, I simply fudged in my literal translation, though I should
have seen it coming and perhaps would have gotten it to a more accurate
linguistic locale had I spent a tad more effort on my word look-up. Other than
that, Wright’s translation proves excellent, as always.

~

This
is the part in my investigation where I would go on and comment on other
translators. But, I have to be honest. I am cutting this post short; I can’t
keep doing these investigations.

Presently,
I have many different ongoing projects and just can’t find the time to learn Middle
English, not with all of the other efforts which are gobbling up my energies.
Though I do enjoy writing these investigations, once I bypass the initial bout
of lethargy, I need to prioritize my efforts for the time being; when I think
of the undertakings which are most prevalent, these investigations ranks fairly
low on my list.

So,
when it comes to the Geoffrey Chaucer:
Life and Works notes, I am simply going to start posting them up as single
posts, no more copulation with these investigations. Today will be the last copulation
of ‘Notes’ and ‘Investigation’ content.

I am sorry to
anyone who sincerely enjoyed these investigations.

The
good news is, however, that I have no by any means abandoned my struggle to
learn Middle English—not by a long shot. It is just that right now is a hectic
time with all of the different projects I have going, so I am putting these
investigations on the backburner while I finish some other projects.

In
the future, I definitely plan on resuming these investigations. Presently, I
find there being little to no point in forcing myself to do the occasional investigation
in-between bouts of inactivity on anything related to Middle English. In the
future, when I am able to dedicate large swathes of time to learning, I will
come back with gusto. Until then, however, please enjoy some of my other
content, such as my ‘Let’s Reads,’ Gonzo military posts, or one of my reviews.

Popular Posts

Lately, I was browsing around online and found another handy resource for aspiring medievalists.

Enter, Western Michigan University's Medieval Institute!

The site has links to an extensive book shop, scholarly journals, as well as a free download. See below for links.

General listing: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medievalpress/
Index of titles available for purchase: http://www.wmich.edu/medievalpublications/all-titles
The 'Medieval Globe' book(s): http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_globe/ (Click on title(s) for free download)

Okay, that is all for now. Sometime soon I think that I would like to organize all of my resource links so that I, as well as you, have a concrete listing of reliable resources. Until then, we shall have to make due.